Refuse Transfer Station and Hamilton Organic Centre to reopen

Hamilton City Council’s rubbish and recycling contractor Waste Management plans to reopen the Lincoln St Refuse Transfer Station and Wickham St Hamilton Organic Centre from Tuesday 28 April, following the country’s move to COVID-19 Alert Level 3. Both sites will be operating safely and within required guidelines at reduced capacity. Recycling drop-offs at the station will not be permitted and the reuse shop will remain closed.

The Refuse Transfer Station will be open between 7.30am and 4.30pm on weekdays and between 9am and 4pm on Sundays and public holidays. The Hamilton Organic Centre, which accepts green waste from residents and commercial operators, will be open every day from 8am to 5pm.

Both sites will require contactless payment from customers – no cash payments will be accepted. Waste Management will log registration plate numbers and time on site for COVID-19 contact tracing purposes. There will be no assistance from staff when tipping, and customers are required to maintain the set physical distancing requirements of two metres. Please be patient and considerate of staff and other customers during this transitional period.

To keep everyone safe, a strict one-in one-out policy will be in place, which may lead to traffic congestion. If queues back up to public roads, we ask residents to come back at an alternative time. The traffic flow at the Refuse Transfer Station will change from Tuesday 28 April, with left turn only entry and exit.

Recycling drop-offs at the station will not be permitted due to a lack of storage space at the facility and safety concerns over the virus being spread to staff who manually sort the items. Once the facility can safely receive recyclable materials for sorting and processing, the station will be able to resume recycling drop-offs.

Cr Angela O’Leary, Chair of the Infrastructure Operations Committee, says the Council will continue to deliver an efficient kerbside collection service to Hamiltonians during this exceptionally difficult time, while supporting the health and wellbeing of the community and staff.

“Safely resuming glass recycling collections earlier this week has brought us a step closer to getting our full service up and running again,” says Cr O’Leary.

“I’m pleased we are now in a position to reopen the Refuse Transfer Station and Hamilton Organic Centre from next Tuesday. Even though recycling drop-offs will still not be permitted due to safety concerns over COVID-19, I can assure residents we are working alongside Waste Management to provide recycling drop-off solutions once our recycling material facilities reopen and items can be handled and recycled safely.”

“I’d like to thank our dedicated team of rubbish collectors for their commitment to delivering an essential service during lockdown and the community for patiently adjusting to the kerbside collection changes in the last few weeks.”

No further changes to the current kerbside rubbish and recycling collection will take effect during Alert Level 3.

Kerbside rubbish collections are continuing as usual

Rinsed glass will be collected and recycled – crates will be emptied directly into the truck without having to sort items by hand

Crates will not be emptied if glass is mixed with tins, cans and plastic

Paper and cardboard will still be collected but sent to landfill

​We’re unable to collect tins, cans and plastics because these items get sorted by hand. Please continue to reduce your waste or pop your plastics, tins and cans in your black rubbish bags to go to landfill.